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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131035">The Engagement Party</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage'>Persiflage</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Holby City</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alex Dawson/Bernie Wolfe (Past), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Back Pain, Canon Bisexual Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Dirty Talk, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Engagement Party, Explicit Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, First Kiss, First Time, Marcus Dunn/Bernie Wolfe (Past), Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mildly Dubious Consent, Porn with Feelings, Serena Campbell is an Out Bisexual, Sex Toys</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:49:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,577</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131035</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Canon Divergence: Serena and Bernie have never met until the night of Cameron and Morven's engagement party. In spite of Cam's estrangement from Bernie, a very good time is had by them both.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Serena Campbell/Bernie Wolfe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>79</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Engagement Party</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was vaguely inspired by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/15082832">No Stag Required</a> by ddagent. </p><p>In this canon divergence Bernie's working as a locum on the ED at Holby City Hospital and hasn't met Serena Campbell, Deputy CEO, until the night of her estranged son's engagement party.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You’re the new locum in the ED, aren’t you?” asks a warm, friendly voice to Bernie’s left. </p><p>She lifts her head from her morose contemplation of her whisky and sees the smiling face of Serena Campbell, vascular surgeon, lead of AAU, and deputy CEO of Holby City hospital. “Guilty as charged,” she says, and doesn’t even try to inject a note of cheerfulness into her voice. She’s far too weary after a brutally long shift at work, desperately trying to save lives.</p><p>“Is it a crime?” Serena asks her.</p><p>Bernie snorts. “According to my son, yes.”</p><p>“Your son?” Serena’s frown can’t disguise how incredibly attractive she is, and Bernie inhales sharply, telling herself not to go down that path, not again.</p><p>“The groom-to-be, Cameron Dunn, is my son,” Bernie tells her.</p><p>“Cam is your son?” Serena exclaims, and Bernie nods, hunching her shoulders. “He’s never said.”</p><p>“He wouldn’t,” Bernie tells her. “He’s disowned me. He was furious when he found out I was working in the ED.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Haven’t you heard?” Bernie asks, a little bitterly. “I’m Enemy No 1 for asking his father for a divorce after I finally admitted to myself – and to Marcus, his father – that I’m a lesbian and I told him I couldn’t remain married to him.”</p><p>“Oh!” Serena gasps. “You’re the woman who got served her divorce papers in the middle of the ED, and then had to treat the bailiff a few hours later after he got bitten by a dog.”</p><p>Bernie hunches her shoulders even more, trying to shrink in on herself. “Yes,” she mutters. She knew that story had gone all over the hospital – the gossips had had a field day with it. She swallows the last of her whisky, then pushes up off the barstool. “It was nice meeting you, but I should get going. I promised Morven I’d put in an appearance – though why she wants to get to know me, I can’t imagine – which I’ve done. I’m sure she and everyone else will be able to breathe more easily once I’m gone.”</p><p>“Don’t go,” Serena says, her hand reaching out to clasp Bernie’s wrist. “I would like to get to know you better.”</p><p>Bernie frowns down at her. “Why?” She can’t keep the bitterness from her voice.</p><p>“Because I’ve been reading your papers on treating trauma for years, and now I finally have the surgeon in question in front of me. I want to pick your clever brain.”</p><p>Bernie snorts. “Only a workaholic would want to talk shop at an engagement party.”</p><p>Serena chuckles. “I have been called that many times,” she agrees. “Buy you a drink?</p><p>Bernie considers, then nods. “Provided it doesn’t make you Enemy No 2 in my son’s eyes.”</p><p>“I’ll risk it. He’s doing very well, you know,” Serena tells her, gesturing to the nearest bartender.</p><p>“I’m glad to hear it,” Bernie says gruffly. It’s been a form of torture, working in the same hospital as her estranged son, knowing that he’s working only a short distance away on AAU, and being unable to see him. Still, Bernie reckons she deserves torture after breaking up the family home and being found out after having an affair with another woman. </p><p>She and Cam had bumped into each other, almost literally, at Pulses, the hospital coffeeshop, during the second week of Cam’s stint on AAU, neither of them aware that the other was working in Holby, and he’d been furiously angry when he’d found out that she’d accepted a position at the hospital. She’d pointed out, quite reasonably that since he and his sister were no longer talking to her, she could hardly be blamed for not informing him of her decision to apply for a locum position in the very hospital where she had been treated her after she’d been blown up by an IED in Afghanistan. She’s seen him at a distance a handful of times since then, in particular with Doctor Morven Digby, the young woman who’d been left a widow by the death of her husband Arthur from cancer some eighteen months before. She had been astonished to learn that Morven and Cam had got engaged, and even more astonished when Morven had invited her to their engagement party. She’d tried to beg off, given her estrangement with Cam, but Morven, bless her, had insisted that the mother of the groom should put in at least a brief appearance, and Bernie, feeling helpless to resist that obviously happy young woman, had agreed. She’s been avoiding Cam ever since, hiding around a corner of the bar so she’s not in his direct line of sight, and mostly keeping her back turned to the rest of the room.</p><p>The bartender sets down another whisky, a double Bernie notes, and a glass of red wine in front of them.</p><p>“Cheers,” Serena says, holding out her glass expectantly.</p><p>“Cheers,” Bernie says, gently knocking her tumbler against Serena’s glass with a wry smile.</p><p>“So,” Serena says after a healthy swallow. “Tell me about the atriocaval shunt you successfully performed.”</p><p>Bernie chuckles lightly, then obeys. Serena’s a good listener, not just because she’s an informed listener, Bernie decides, but because she’s genuinely interested in people. She is also, Bernie discovers over the course of the next couple of hours, very tactile and seems increasingly so the more Shiraz she consumes. </p><p>Eventually, after exhausting Bernie’s fund of anecdotes of battlefield medicine, Serena admits she ought to go home. She slides off her stool somewhat unsteadily and it occurs to Bernie, who’s been drinking at a far slower rate than her new friend, that Serena probably shouldn’t be trying to get home by herself in this state. </p><p>“C’mon,” Bernie tells her, helping her into her coat, and ensuring she’s got her handbag and her phone. “My hotel’s not far up the street. It’s a twin room, so you can bunk in with me.”</p><p>“You’re a star, Major Wolfe,” Serena says, and plants a sloppy kiss on her cheek.</p><p>Bernie chuckles. “Yeah, a big ball of flaming gas, that’s me.”</p><p>She guides Serena across the pub and out into the bitterly cold air, and when she sees the other woman shiver abruptly in shock at the colder temperature, she doesn’t hesitate to wrap an arm around her shoulders as she guides her up the street to her hotel. She gets the keycard from the reception desk, and orders a room service breakfast for them both, then guides Serena across the hotel foyer and into the lift.</p><p>She’s a little surprised when Serena crowds her into a corner and tells her, in an amorous tone, that she’s quite the most gorgeous woman she’s ever met, and she’s even more surprised when Serena begins kissing her, slipping her tongue easily into Bernie’s mouth when she gasps in shock at suddenly having her arms full of the very attractive brunette.</p><p>She knows she shouldn’t kiss Serena back, particularly when her judgement is sure to be impaired by the impressive amount of Shiraz she’d consumed over the course of the evening, but at the same time, she is only human and she’s been wanting to kiss the brunette since she sat down next to Bernie several hours ago.</p><p>She manages to guide Serena out of the lift and down the hallway, glad that her room is fairly close to the lift. But it takes her two attempts to get the door open because Serena’s body is plastered to her back, her breath hot on the back of Bernie’s neck, then on her cheek as she turns her head to admonish Serena. </p><p>They stumble into the room, and shed their coats and shoes, leaving their handbags on a chair near the door. Serena resumes kissing Bernie, while also unbuttoning the black shirt she’s wearing, and Bernie can’t help unbuttoning the floaty cobalt blue silk blouse that Serena’s wearing – a colour that looks exceptionally good on her. </p><p>Serena chuckles when she gets Bernie’s shirt open. “What?” she asks defensively.</p><p>“Nothing.”</p><p>“No, it’s something. No matter how much you’ve had to drink, I refuse to believe you laugh at nothing.”</p><p>Serena shakes her head. “The sports bra seems very you.”</p><p>“It’s comfortable,” Bernie protests.</p><p>“I know, love. I know.”</p><p>Bernie freezes a bit at the endearment, even though she’s sure it doesn’t really mean anything, but Serena’s already unbuttoning the fly on Bernie’s skinny jeans, and that’s more than enough to unfreeze her.</p><p>Once they’re down to their underwear – a Shiraz red lace and silk matching knickers and bra set in Serena’s case, and a plain black sports bra and a pair of grey boxer shorts in Bernie’s – Bernie has to grab Serena’s wrists and ask, rather desperately, “Serena, are you sure about this? You’ve had a lot to drink, and I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret in the morning.”</p><p>“Berenice Wolfe, I can promise you that while I might, possibly, regret the amount of Shiraz I’ve drunk come the morning, I am definitely not going to regret having sex with you. Well, not unless the sex is rubbish.” Serena kisses her hungrily and slides her hand into Bernie’s shorts. </p><p>Bernie gasps as two strong, clever fingers slide through her coarse wiry hair, then dip into her slick heat.</p><p>“Fuck!” The word slips out of her unintentionally, but Serena just chuckles against her mouth, then backs her up to the closest bed even as her fingers slip deeper into Bernie’s sex.</p><p>“Oh darling, I’m going to give you such a fucking as you can never forget.”</p><p>“Ding dong,” Bernie breathes, and pulls Serena down onto the bed with her, parting her legs eagerly to accommodate her lover’s fingers.</p><p>SC-BW-SC-BW-SC</p><p>When Serena Campbell wakes the next morning it’s to the too bright sunshine peeking through a gap in the curtains and the smell of coffee.</p><p>“What the fuck did I do last night?” she mutters, a little more loudly than intended.</p><p>“Less of a ‘what’ than a ‘who’,” says a gravelly voice nearby.</p><p>She gasps in surprise as she recognises the voice of one Major Berenice Wolfe, ex RAMC and locum in the ED. She rolls over and finds the blonde sitting up beside her in the bed, two cups of coffee – strong and hot, just as she likes it – beside her on the nightstand.</p><p>“I – what?” she asks.</p><p>“Coffee?” Bernie says, and picks up one of the cups.</p><p>Serena gets herself upright and leans against the headboard alongside the locum. “Just how much did I drink last night?” she asks with a groan, before inhaling the scent of her coffee.</p><p>“Three bottles by my count.”</p><p>“Ouch.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Bernie passes her some paracetamol. “You were, however, adamant that you were sufficiently aware of your actions to consent to sex. Actually, you initiated it and very much took the lead during rounds one and two.</p><p>“Rounds one and two?” repeats Serena, feeling a little disbelieving as she dry swallows the painkillers.</p><p>Bernie smirks, and oh, that is a devastatingly gorgeous smirk, and a devastatingly gorgeous face, too, Serena decides. “We went for four rounds before you finally admitted you needed to get some sleep.”</p><p>“Four? Dear gods.” She swallows a couple of mouthfuls of coffee, then shifts on the bed, and winces as she realises that she can feel bruises on her thighs.</p><p>“Yeah, I’d apologise for the bruises, but you started it.” Bernie pulls down the neck of her t-shirt to show a pretty spectacular bruise that has blossomed on her left clavicle. “I have two more, one on each thigh, as well.” She proceeds to shove the duvet down from where it’s resting across their laps, and Serena can see that there are, indeed, two more fresh bruises on Bernie’s thighs. </p><p>She looks down and notes that the two on her own thighs are somewhat smaller. “You were kinder to me than I was to you,” she notes, and swallows more coffee in an attempt to hide her guilt.</p><p>“Hey now,” Bernie says, her voice sounding smoother thanks to the coffee she’s also been drinking. “You asked if you could bite me, and I said yes. And you gave me permission to bite you.” Her voice lowers. “We both agreed we occasionally like it a bit rough.”</p><p>Serena shudders at the tone as well as the words, and Bernie murmurs an apology, then draws the duvet back up. “I’m sorry,” Serena says.</p><p>“Well, I’m not. I had a very enjoyable evening talking to you, and the sex was quite easily the best I’ve ever had.” The blonde leans in. “You have a very talented mouth and equally talented hands, Ms Campbell.”</p><p>Serena can feel herself blushing at the sheer sultry seductiveness oozing from Bernie’s mouth and she puts her coffee aside, grabs Bernie’s cup and puts it with her own, then climbs onto her lap and kisses her.</p><p>Bernie chuckles into the kiss, her hands settling on Serena’s hips, and there’s a feeling of rightness at having them there that makes Serena whine into the other woman’s mouth. Then she pulls back and winces a little at the soreness between her legs. </p><p>Bernie gives her a soft look. “Yeah, you discovered I had a strap on in my kit and insisted that I quote unquote Give you a good seeing to. That was round four.”</p><p>“Dare I ask what happened during round three?”</p><p>Bernie chuckles quietly. “Oh, that was just me going down on you, and using my fingers in tandem with my mouth.” She smirks from beneath her fringe. “It came as no surprise to me to discover that you’re very bossy in bed.”</p><p>“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Serena says primly.</p><p>Bernie snorts. “Sure you don’t.” The blonde pinches Serena’s waist lightly, and she immediately swats at her hands.</p><p>“So, you’ve got a strap on?” she purrs.</p><p>That earns her a chuckle. “I have indeed. As I explained last night, I bought it when Alex and I were together, but I never got the chance to use it because I got blown up, and then we broke up. So you were the first to be on the receiving end of it.”</p><p>“Can I see it?” Serena tries not to sound too eager, but the truth is, she is eager. She rather likes the visual of Bernie wearing such a toy, if she’s being perfectly honest with herself, and since she has no recollection from last night – at least not yet – she’d like to make up for it.</p><p>Bernie tugs at the drawer of the nightstand and pulls out a thick purple silicone dildo and a leather harness.</p><p>“Will you wear it for me?” Serena asks. “Please?”</p><p>“Seems a lot of trouble to go to just to show you what it looks like on me,” the blonde says coyly, and Serena leans in and nips at her lower lip.</p><p>“Okay,” she says, voice deliberately lowered. “Put it on and fuck me.” She leans back and Bernie raises her eyebrows. </p><p>“Are you sure?” she asks. “I don’t want to make you even more sore than you already are.”</p><p>“Do you have some lube?” Serena asks, and when Bernie nods, she smirks. “Then put it on, Major, and fuck me.”</p><p>Bernie’s wide eyed now, but she nods rapidly, so Serena climbs off her lap and watches as the blonde slides off the bed and swiftly gets the leather harness into place, then fixes the dildo in front. Then she takes a fairly large bottle of strawberry lube from the still open drawer of the nightstand and proceeds to stroke a generous amount onto the silicon.</p><p>Serena licks her lips slowly, eyes fixed on the movements of Bernie’s hand, until she stops, and when Serena looks up it’s to find the blonde’s unwavering and positively hungry gaze is fixed on her. The expression she sees on the Major’s face causes heat and moisture to gather between her legs. </p><p>“How do you want me?” she asks silkily, doing her utmost to keep her composure.</p><p>“Last night you seemed to enjoy it most when you were on your hands and knees and I took you from behind. Though you ended up on your belly, with a couple of pillows under your hips because you were struggling to stay up on your hands and knees.” Bernie actually blushes, which Serena finds startling and yet endearing too. “You said I was fucking you deeper when you were lying face down.”</p><p>“Well then,” Serena says, and rearranges the pillows as she settles prone on the bed. She lifts her hips and Bernie helps her to slide two of the pillows underneath her. “I suggest you get on with it, Major.”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.” </p><p>Moments later Serena lets out a moan of pure pleasure as Bernie slides the silicone dick straight into her heated sex. It’s the most exquisite sensation, being filled and stretched by the toy, and feeling Bernie’s breasts pressing against her back, even through the t-shirt she’s wearing.</p><p>“Take your shirt off,” she whispers. “Please.”</p><p>Bernie leaves the toy buried inside her as she manoeuvres the t-shirt off, and Serena moans even more loudly when she feels the rub of Bernie’s hard nipples against her back. “Better?”</p><p>“Much,” Serena agrees. </p><p>Bernie fucks her deep and hard, her hands sliding under Serena’s torso to toy with her breasts, tweaking her nipples and making her cry out when she combines that with a nip of the teeth to her shoulder. </p><p>“Does it feel good when I fill your tight wet cunt with my cock?” Bernie asks, her hot breath ghosting over Serena’s ear. “Do you like it when I fuck you hard, Serena?”</p><p>“Yes, yes! Oh god, so good!” Serena gasps and moans as her orgasm builds and builds. She thinks, somewhat incoherently, that she’d never have guessed Bernie was the type for dirty talk during sex, but she can’t say she minds in the least.</p><p>“Are you going to come for me?” Bernie’s fingers deftly pinch, then twist Serena’s right nipple, while her left hand adds just the right amount of pressure to her clit, and she comes with a shriek as her inner walls tighten around the toy. Her orgasm seems to be endless with her muscles repeatedly tightening and loosening as Bernie thrusts a few more times. Then she stills with a grunt in Serena’s ear, and it occurs to her that her new lover has also just climaxed.</p><p>“Okay?” Bernie asks after a few moments. “Want me to move?”</p><p>“No,” Serena says immediately. “Not just yet.”</p><p>“Okay.” She nuzzles her nose into the side of Serena’s neck, which makes her turn her head for a kiss. It’s a rather sloppy kiss, as it turns out, but no less satisfactory for all that.</p><p>They’re silent for a few minutes until Bernie suddenly mutters “Oh shit!” and shifts with a moan that’s indicative of pain rather than pleasure.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” asks Serena anxiously.</p><p>“Back. Muscle. Spasm,” Bernie gasps staccato, propping her upper body on her forearms. </p><p>Serena drags herself forward, biting her lip to silence her moan when the toy slides out of her sex, then she manages to turn onto her back and asks anxiously, “What can I do to help?”</p><p>“Can you – ah! – get the harness off – ow! – me so I – fuck! – can lie down. Shit! Please?” </p><p>Serena might’ve been inclined to laugh at the way Bernie punctuates her words with moans if the moans were of pleasure rather than pain. As it is she swiftly unbuckles the leather straps, then sets them and the toy aside on top of the other nightstand. She turns back towards the Major to find her lying on her stomach, sweating and moaning in obvious agony.</p><p>“Painkillers?” she asks.</p><p>“Strip of Neurontin in my toiletries bag,” Bernie manages, before moaning again. “In the ensuite.”</p><p>Serena climbs off the bed and fetches them and a glass of water, then helps Bernie to swallow them down. “Would a massage help?” she asks, taking the glass and putting it on the nightstand.</p><p>“Don’t know,” Bernie says. “Never tried it.”</p><p>“Would you like me to?”</p><p>“Please.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>Serena grabs Bernie’s discarded t-shirt and pulls it on, not wanting her own nakedness to distract her, then she kneels over the blonde’s thighs, and begins to work her way down her back from her neck and shoulders to her waist. </p><p>Fortunately, Bernie’s moans of pain become moans of relief, and between the muscle-relaxing drugs and the massage the spasms in her back ease up, and eventually she’s able to sit up again. She chuckles at the sight of Serena in her t-shirt, then digs out a replacement one from her bag.</p><p>“Thanks very much for that, Serena,” she says as she settles back on the bed, having brought over the tray of pastries and bowls of fruit that she tells Serena she’d ordered for their breakfast the night before. “I owe you.”</p><p>“No, you definitely don’t,” Serena says immediately. “You put your back out fucking me.” She can feel herself blushing as she says this, which is absurd after all they’ve done together. </p><p>Bernie smirks. “No one can accuse me of not putting my back into it.” </p><p>Serena swats at her knee. “You’re a terrible person.” She grabs a pain au chocolat, ignoring her lover’s raised eyebrows, and snags a napkin, too.</p><p>“Am I?” Bernie’s eyes are twinkling as she grabs a bowl of fruit and pours a pot of yoghurt over it. </p><p>“I suppose not.” Serena demolishes her pastry, then grabs the other bowl of fruit and adds her own yoghurt to it.</p><p>“So, I have a question,” Bernie says when she’s finished her fruit. Her voice is quiet and her tone serious.</p><p>Serena raises an eyebrow, her mouth full, and she gestures with her spoon in an attempt to get Bernie to continue. </p><p>“Where do we go from here? Do you, in fact, want to go somewhere from here?”</p><p>Serena nods, chews, then swallows. “Yes, I do. I know this started out as a bit of a drunken fumble.” Bernie snorts, but she ignores that. “But we have undeniable sexual chemistry. I would like to explore that further, and I’d like to do other things too: have dinner together; or meet for coffee and a pastry when we’ve both got a day off; go for a drive into the country.”</p><p>“Grown up dates?” Bernie asks, and at Serena’s nod, she adds softly, “I think I’d like that very much. Alex and I didn’t get the chance to do that.” She swallows, looking down at her lap. “We had an affair, which was wrong on two counts – one because I was still married to Marcus, but two because I was her commanding officer. If we’d been found out, we’d have been in a hell of a lot of trouble.” She peeks up at Serena, brown eyes deep and dark under her fringe. “We didn’t ever even get the chance to actually sleep in the same bed together. I don’t want to do that again. I want to do things properly with you. If that’s what you want.”</p><p>“I do want that,” Serena agrees. “I also want to sleep with you – as in, have you come over for dinner and then stay the night and sleep in my bed with me. After scorchingly hot sex, of course – but preferably without the back spasms.”</p><p>Bernie laughs at that – an astonishing goose honk of a laugh that makes Serena laugh too until they’re clutching at each other and shaking violently.</p><p>“Remind me never to watch a comedy with you in a public space,” Serena wheezes once they’ve eventually calmed down and caught their breath. </p><p>Bernie raises her eyebrows and smirks, but luckily doesn’t let loose with the full throated goose honk again. “Duly noted,” she says, huskily.</p><p>Serena sighs, then says, “I need a shower, and some more coffee, and then I should leave you in peace.”</p><p>“Do you have to?” Bernie asks. “Leave me in peace, I mean? I think you said last night that you have today off, just as I do, and it’s a nice day out there. Perhaps we could go out somewhere together? That is, unless you’d rather not. We have just spent the last twelve hours together, so I’d understand if you – Mmph.”</p><p>Serena cuts off her rambling with a kiss, and Bernie shifts the tray off her lap and onto the nightstand, then pulls Serena onto her lap in its place. They kiss until they’re breathless, then pull apart.</p><p>“I definitely want to spend more time with you today,” she says. “Showers first, then we should get some more coffee before we go out.”</p><p>“Separate showers?” Bernie asks.</p><p>Serena snorts. “Definitely. I don’t know about you, but I am definitely too sore for any more sex for the time being.”</p><p>“Shame,” Bernie murmurs in her ear, warm breath tickling her skin. “That toy’s quite waterproof.”</p><p>Serena feels her breath hitch at the mental image of Bernie fucking her with the toy in the shower. “Maybe you’d like to stay at mine tonight,” she says, voice thick with desire. “And you can give me a proper demonstration?”</p><p>“Oh I say. Ding dong.” Bernie sounds breathless and her face is dusted with pink along the line of her cheekbones.</p><p>Serena smirks, then climbs off her lap and off the bed too, then makes her way into the ensuite. Then she sticks her head back out and asks, rather diffidently, “Mind if I use your shower gel and stuff?”</p><p>“Be my guest,” Bernie says, busy gathering up their coffee cups and putting things back on the tray for housekeeping to collect.</p><p>After they’ve both showered and Bernie’s put together the clothes and things she wants for an overnight at Serena’s they head back to her house so that Serena can change into fresh clothes, and Bernie leaves her bag there, then they climb back into Bernie’s ‘ridiculous’ car – which the Major tells her was definitely a ‘mid-life crisis’ purchase – and drive out into the countryside for a ‘brief, brisk walk’ as per Serena’s request, and a late pub lunch.</p><p>Serena can’t help thinking how lucky she is to have found Bernie. Her previous, most recent relationships have all been rather lacklustre affairs – the sex had been good, although not as mind-blowing as the sex she’s already had with Bernie – but the men were all rather dull, personality wise. Bernie is vastly different, and not just because she’s a woman. She’s also Serena’s equal – a fantastic and fearless trauma surgeon, smart, witty, and very caring. It’s been a long time since Serena was anything more than friends with a woman, but she thinks she’s more than ready to fully embrace her bisexual side again as she hasn’t done for thirty years. She decides to have a word with Hanssen on Monday and find out whether or not they can offer Bernie a permanent role as a consultant – then she won’t have to worry about the Major’s locum position coming to an end. Ideally she’d like to get Bernie onto AAU where she is sure the other woman’s trauma experience would be put to far better use, but she’s aware that there might well be ethical issues if they’re in a relationship. She resolves to talk to HR about that on Monday, too. Before that, however, she fully intends to enjoy spending time in Bernie’s company including, hopefully, yet more mind blowing sex.</p>
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